Get the lowdown on Nashville’s Food Waste Initiative Feb. 1

The “Waste Not, Want Not” event is part of Vanderbilt University’s Thinking Out of the (Lunch) Boxseries. A limited number of box lunches will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 11:30 a.m. The program will run from noon to 1:15 p.m.

“We waste 40 percent of our food supply even as people go hungry,” says David Wood, the W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt and founder of the Thinking Out of the (Lunch) Boxseries. “The Nashville Food Waste Initiative [a project of the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC] has chosen Nashville as a pilot city to develop initiatives and policies to address this problem.”

David Wood is the W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy and founder of the Thinking Out of the (Lunch) Box series. (Vanderbilt)

According to NRDC, 95 percent of the food that is thrown out ends up in a landfill, where it emits methane and contributes to global warming. If food waste could be reduced by 30 percent and the food was distributed efficiently, the needs of all 50 million food-insecure Americans could be met every day of the year. The federal government has set a national goal of reducing food waste by 50 percent by 2030.

Thinking Out of the (Lunch) Box: Conversations with a Philosophical Flavor is sponsored by Friends of the Nashville Public Library, with additional funding provided by the Kendall Berry Charitable Trust. No reservations are needed. The lunch and talk are free and open to the public. A $5 donation is suggested to help defray costs.